With the Hands of Mercy

Homily of H.E., Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle

April 27, 2025 | Second Sunday of Easter (Sunday of Divine Mercy)

Gospel: John 20:19-31 | Pontificio Collegio Filippino

My dear brothers and sisters:

We praise and thank the Lord, for gathering us as one community, as one family, on this Sunday within the Octave of Easter, the Second Sunday of Easter.

[Saint] Pope John II named the Second Sunday of Easter as the Sunday of Divine Mercy, especially because of the Gospel reading that we have. The image of the Divine Mercy really is based on the visit of Jesus, where He showed His wounded hands and wounded side. We need to praise the Lord, for mercy has become eternal in the Risen Lord.

We know that mercy will not be defeated by the evil, present in the world; but we have to believe in it, and we have to act on it. Very often we do the reverse. We see a lot of the negative things, but very few proclaim the little good things that are happening. So, evil prevails, because we spread the bad news, and very few talk about good news. That is not the Resurrection. The Resurrection is the triumph of the good news, the triumph of mercy. So, it is our obligation to discern the presence, the apparition of the Risen Lord, showing us His mercy. We do not deny [that] there are many acts of lack of mercy: mercilessness, discrimination, injustice, wars everywhere; but sometimes nobody talks about the little manifestations of mercy, so, mercilessness triumphs. That's not the Easter attitude.

The Hands of The Lord

Let me focus on one aspect of the presence of the Merciful Lord. The disciples hid themselves, locked themselves up in a room for fear of the Jews. They were probably just waiting for the Jews to come and do what they had done to Jesus: arrest them, send them to trial, and maybe even sentence them also to death; and it's understandable. When you're in danger, when you're afraid, you lock yourself up. Even individuals, when we feel threatened, you lock yourself. You lock yourself up. That's the attitude of a fearful person, and it is understandable. It's self defense, but maybe they were also afraid that Jesus might come.

“I would be more afraid of Jesus, rather than of the Jews,” for they had failed Jesus. They had abandoned Jesus. So, how will they face Jesus? If He, according to His Word, really “would rise from the dead.” (Now this is my interpretation.) But even with the locked doors, even with the locked doors, it was not the Jews who came, it was Jesus who came, and who penetrated the doors. He showed them His hands, His side wounded. The disciples were partly the cause of those wounds, because of their infidelity; but showing His hands and side, He did not reproach them, He did not reprimand them. Instead, He said, “Peace be with you!” and He breathed on them the Holy Spirit, which is an act of recreating them, “You will be a new creation, new life will be in you.” Then He sends them, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

The hands of Jesus that have been wounded, and the hands that have experienced the wounds of many, many people―those wounded hands became the source of peace, of new life, and of a new mission.

If Jesus were not the Risen Lord, those hands would have been used to slap the faces of Peter and the rest [while saying] “How dare you!” But no, He was wounded, but He never would wound others. Mercy does not take revenge. It always offers new life. Justice, yes, but not revenge. An offer of new life, and even something absurd that Jesus did, He gave them a new mission. So, trust. I would not have entrusted the mission to these Twelve. They had already failed, but this is Divine Mercy. This is not human mercy, Divine Mercy.

When Thomas, who was not present, said, “I would not believe,” imagine the Merciful Lord returned a week later today, Sunday. As though for Thomas, only for him, so that He would see the wounds. Jesus said, “Put your finger into my nail marks, and put your hand into my side.” “I'm showing you my hands now. Let me have your hand. Touch me, experience my mercy.” Thomas answered, “My Lord and my God!” Not the god of others, not a generic god. He did not say, “Oh god, oh lord.” He said, “My Lord, my God!” He felt embraced by these hands.

We need to experience this very silent, very silent, unassuming manifestations and presence of the Risen Lord, who comes with mercy, who wants us to touch Him as He touches us; and with His merciful hands, He hands over to us the mission that He has received from the Father: to be merciful too.

The Hands of The Apostles

That's why, in the First Reading, the Acts of the Apostles (5:12-16), said, “Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles.” Now it's the hands of the apostles doing all the miracles, all the healing, the work of the merciful hands of God. Now, being the responsibility of the hands of the apostles.

In the Second Reading (Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19), St. John had a vision, and he fell like dead, seeing God, but God touched Him. Jesus touched Him with His right hand and said, “Do not be afraid.” Again, when you fall, the hand of the Lord reaches out to you, and tells you, “Do not be afraid.” Then he was given a mission. “Write on a scroll what you see.” 

The apostles perform miracles through their hands, and now through the hand of the apostle John, you have the writing. He must write the good things that God has done.

Our Own Hands

Now, what do our hands do? Do they produce acts of healing or destruction? What do our hands write, the marvelous things that God has done, or fake news?

Lord, have mercy on us!

This is a day not just for like a devotional thing, “I have been to the chapel of Divine Mercy.” So what? Have you touched the hands of the Lord? Have the hands of the Lord transformed you? Have they transformed your hands, so that you could be an extension of God's mercy, and the writing of the vision of the Risen Lord?

It's now in our hands. St. John closes this gospel by saying, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples that are not written in this book…” (John 20:30). We hope each one of us would be the continuing writing of the marvelous things that God continues to do through His mercy in the Risen Lord.

Transcribed by Joel V. Ocampo